Silent Alarm - Hardcover

Praise for SILENT ALARM

"Wow, what a book. One has to admire Jennifer Banash for attempting a task as difficult and wrenching as telling the story of a school shooting from the point of view of the shooter's sister. Grim and gripping from the very first sentence, Banash leads the reader through a valiant effort to find the answer to the horribly unanswerable, and yet convincingly manages to end with a note of hope."--Todd Strasser, author of Give a Boy a Gun

"A lyrical portrait... Readers seeking empathy behind the headlines will find it here."--BCCB

"A moving, insightful treatment of a difficult and timely topic."--Kirkus Reviews

"A captivating portrait of a family torn apart by jealousy and neglect."--School Library Journal

"A comprehensive, truthful, and uncompromising book, an important addition to any library serving teens."--VOYA, perfect score

"This wrenching novel gets all of the emotional beats right."--Booklist

"Readers will connect to Alys' struggles. The story addresses many of the questions and emotions teens may have when learning about real-life tragedies."--SLC

Alys’s whole world was comprised of the history project that was due, her upcoming violin audition, being held tightly in the arms of her boyfriend, Ben, and laughing with her best friend, Delilah. At least it was—until she found herself on the wrong end of a shotgun in the school library. Her suburban high school had become one of those places you hear about on the news—a place where some disaffected youth decided to end it all and take as many of his teachers and classmates with him as he could. Except, in this story, that youth was Alys’s own brother, Luke. He killed fifteen others and himself, but spared her—though she’ll never know why.
 
Alys’s downward spiral begins instantly, and there seems to be no bottom. A heartbreaking and beautifully told story.